Samsung Officially Unveils the Quad Core Cortex A9 Exynos 4412

Yesterday, Samsung introduced the first quad-core Cortex A9 application processor built on the High-k Metal Gate (HKMG) low-power process technology. the The Exynos 4412, clocked up to 1.4GHz, targets smartphones and tablets and enables double the processing power at a 20 percent lower power bill over the 45nm process-based Exynos 4210 (Dual core Cortex A9).

Power efficiency has been improved thanks to hot-plug functionality to support on-off switching for each core and per-core dynamic voltage & frequency scaling (DVFS). The Exynos 4412 is pin-to-pin compatible with the 32nm process based Exynos 4 Dual (aka Exynos 4212) making it simply a replacement part for existing designs based on Exynos 4212.

The new processor also features a video hardware codec engine capable of recording and playing 1080p video @ 30fps (MPEG4 ASP/H.264 HP/H.263 P3 encoding and decoding, and MPEG2/VC1 and WMV9 decoding) , an embedded image signal processor interface for high-quality camera functionality and an HDMI 1.4 interface.

Here’s a system diagram of a typical design based on Exynos 4212 / 4412 processors:

Samsung Exynos 4 Quad (Exynos 4412) System Diagram

Samsung also released a promo video showing the Exynos 4 Quad can support WQXGA resolution (2560×1600), benchmarks between Exynos 4 Quad against the previous generation Exynos 4 processor both in terms of CPU, GPU and power consumption, 3D gaming and 3D stereoscopic capabilities.

The Exynos 4 Quad is already in mass production and Samsung announced it will be used in the version version of Samsung Galaxy smartphone (which will officially be announced in May).